• Question: what technology do you think will be the future in providing carbon emission free energy?

    Asked by bdrchung9000 to Murray on 11 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Murray Collins

      Murray Collins answered on 11 Mar 2011:

      This is an important question in energy policy and of course technology. Well we know we can harness wind and solar energy, but we would need to do an enormous amount of this in order to supply the amount of energy we currently use (and the amount we use is also going up – everything seems to be electronic these days, even photograph frames!)

      I’m not sure that there will be one most important technology, instead we will end up doing lots of things like improving carbon capture and storage on fossil-fuel burning power stations; increasing the amounts of renewables like solar energy, and also increasing the amount of nuclear energy.

      Nuclear energy provides virtually carbon emission-free energy now. But there are problems with it. We have to securely store the dangerous waste product, and make sure there is enough raw material to produce the energy (we need lots of uranium). Nuclear reactors also take a long time to build, but we need to be reducing our emissions drastically now. (And that’s where my research comes in, looking at how to reduce emissions from forests).

      But I don’t want to dodge your question. If I have to pick one technology for the future in providing carbon emission free energy, I will say nuclear power, particularly if physicists can work out how to harness the power of nuclear fusion as well as fission.

      Whether we choose nuclear or not depends also on politics – whether we think the risks are too high.
      What do you think? Maybe see you in one of the online chats!

Comments

  • Photo: bdrchung9000

    bdrchung9000 commented on :

    Thanks for answering the question, but does your answer still stand after the Japanese nuclear threat?

    • Photo: Murray

      Murray commented on :

      Hi – yes I think so. If you think about how dangerous climate change is predicted to be, then power stations which work on fossil fuels are also very dangerous, but just in a less direct way. Nuclear power stations are potentially more dangerous immediately if something like a tsunami happens. Hopefully the engineers which build these power stations will learn more about how to protect them from earthquake damage.